Terrible squeal with wah pedal between guitar and GB

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Level 1

63 points

Terrible squeal with wah pedal between guitar and GB

I just tried putting my standard Dunlop wah pedal in between my guitar and the input to my Mac mini. However, with the wah clicked on, the sound turned into this weird high pitched squeal (that changed slightly depending on how one rocked the wah pedal, but didn't seem to reflect any sound coming off the guitar. With the wah clicked off, the signal came through fine, as normal

I don't think there's anything wrong with the wah pedal -- the effect seems much like the problem described on this page: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Guitar-General-649/Effects.htm
This makes me wonder if there is indeed some weird interaction between the signal coming out of the wah pedal and GB's amp sims?

Anyone else have any experience with this? It occurs to me as I'm writing that I wonder if sticking a pedal with a line buffer -- I've got a Boss TU-2 that would do the job -- either before or after the wah would help? Haven't tried yet, obviously .....

Mac Mini (2 Ghz Intel/2 GB RAM), Mac OS X (10.4.10), Tascam US-122 USB audio interface

Posted on Dec 8, 2007 5:05 PM

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Answer 1

isteveus

Level 5

4,340 points

Dec 8, 2007 7:30 PM in response to carlaz

I guess that you wah is the problem remember the mac input is line level and expects line level. Your Wah is made to go into a amp and design for that only. I don't think the turner is going to help but worth a try. If you have a compressor that may work.

I would guess a digital wah would work fine.

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Answer 2

carlaz Author

Level 1

63 points

Dec 9, 2007 8:01 AM in response to isteveus

I'm not sure that's the problem. I run my guitar into the Mac through a Tascam USB-122, and its inputs' switches let me change between line level and "guitar" level (aka Hi-Z). The problem doesn't occur just because the wah is plugged in -- when the wah effect is off, the signal is fine. The problem only occurs when the wah effect is actually on. I'm not sure why that matters, but it does.

I also have an old Thomas Organ Crybaby (incidentally modified for "true bypass", though that shouldn't matter) and though I haven't tried it now, I could have sworn I tried it a couple years ago with a previous GB version, and it was fine. It's a bit knackered, that old pedal, but I should dig it out and try again maybe.

It's an odd problem!

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Answer 3

isteveus

Level 5

4,340 points

Dec 9, 2007 9:54 AM in response to carlaz

I got a late 70's cry baby laying around, later today I give it a try and see what happens.

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